People who "cut the cord"- Do you regret it?

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'm thinking of plugging the cord in. Been without pay tv most of my life. Thinking of spoiling myself..

 

[NutBucket]

Throw your life away. Much prefer my extra free time for doing productive things...like forum surfing LOL.

 

[mvbighead]

I'm thinking of plugging the cord in. Been without pay tv most of my life. Thinking of spoiling myself..

I did that, and for the most part am regretting it. That enticing $39 a month offer from DirecTV quickly turned to $100/month and all I have is 1 DVR and 1 set top box that can "stream" from the DVR. The streaming from the DVR is terribad, so I don't do it. All I have is basic channels, and I'm still bending over and taking it.

Considering that most of what I watch is on the local channels, am I very likely going to dump satellite and just hit the bar when the Colts are not broadcast locally. I wish I didn't like the Colts so much, as I'd just pick a more local team and watch every game without paying $400 a year for it.

 

[desura]

I did that, and for the most part am regretting it. That enticing $39 a month offer from DirecTV quickly turned to $100/month and all I have is 1 DVR and 1 set top box that can "stream" from the DVR. The streaming from the DVR is terribad, so I don't do it. All I have is basic channels, and I'm still bending over and taking it.

Considering that most of what I watch is on the local channels, am I very likely going to dump satellite and just hit the bar when the Colts are not broadcast locally. I wish I didn't like the Colts so much, as I'd just pick a more local team and watch every game without paying $400 a year for it.

Yeah, I tried talking to Dish Network about those intro offers, and they kept on jumping up to $80/mo. Why does it have to be so difficult? Why not just make it all web-based?

 

[Mai72]

Read a book. Education yoursself!

Be a fool and dont skip sschool!

Train you're brain, an put it thru some pain!

 

[MaxDepth]

XBMC + Amazon Prime (sweet, no-brainer choice for new parents) + Netflix + OTA

It has worked for me since 2005. XBMC came along about 4 years ago (for me) and Internet speeds have gone from 2 to 6mb, which is plenty for streaming one or two shows at the same time.

XBMC lets me scrape the TV websites for past episodes instead of typing in every channel on a web browser. So yes, if I don't catch a show OTA then I have to wait a day or week (thanks, Fox!) to catch it from the web.

Also, XBMC lets me convert my music to FLAC and lets me catalog them. Can rip DVDs too. So connecting my HDMI video output from my HTPC to the AV receiver, I get basically the same service without that ongoing cost. And by now, the HTPC components and upgrades have paid for themselves.

So here's my math:
12 months of Cable or satellite at their introductory price: $19.99 @ 12 months - $239.88
8 years of regular price (avg. as prices have been climbing in our area): $40 @ 96 months - $3,840
Total saved by not using cable or satellite: $4079.88

 

[watdahel]

I just disconnected Directv last week after five years and I am suffering from withdrawal syndrome. I feel disconnected to the world. On the other hand $140 will no long disappear from my bank account.

I'm gonna see how the Roku works out for me but I am really cautious of the 100 GB data cap Cox enforces. I may have to sign up for their top tier which is an extra $50 a month.

 

[edro]

Hell no I don't regret it.

Huluplus + Netflix + OTA HD Antenna + illegal european streams of sports = WIN

 

[tmc]

cut dish 2 years ago and no regrets.

XBMC on apple tv 1 with openelec/crystalbuntu worked great. now i upgraded to a computer with windows running xbmc.

only thing i miss is live sports (ESPN).

 

[z1ggy]

Hell no I don't regret it.

Huluplus + Netflix + OTA HD Antenna + illegal european streams of sports = WIN

We can't condone that last part of your equation here... People get their peepee's slapped for suggesting torrenting of media, I imagine this falls in that category.

 

[poofyhairguy]

only thing i miss is live sports (ESPN).

Does your cable provider support ESPN3? If so you can use the Firefox+Hotspot Shield combo on Windows to get around any blackout restrictions for free.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I went without technology pretty much for 6 months as I remodeled my house. It was the best 6 months ever.

 

[vi edit]

Does your cable provider support ESPN3? If so you can use the Firefox+Hotspot Shield combo on Windows to get around any blackout restrictions for free.

Does ESPN3 have any remotely popular professional US sports on? I really don't want to watch womens field hocky national semifinals.

 

[tmc]

Does your cable provider support ESPN3? If so you can use the Firefox+Hotspot Shield combo on Windows to get around any blackout restrictions for free.

yeah i get espn3, but i need espn for MNF etc.

 

[squarecut1]

Does ESPN3 have any remotely popular professional US sports on? I really don't want to watch womens field hocky national semifinals.

A lot of tennis...well that is my favorite sport

 

[vi edit]

yeah i get espn3, but i need espn for MNF etc.

Honestly,

There were like 2 good MNF last year. I feel that it's been pretty weak since the whole NFL network/Thursday night games started kicking in. Which are even worse than the Monday night games.

 

[Sheep]

Honestly,

There were like 2 good MNF last year. I feel that it's been pretty weak since the whole NFL network/Thursday night games started kicking in. Which are even worse than the Monday night games.

Yup. Sunday Night Football on NBC has basically replaced MNF which has been lacklaster, at best, the past few seasons.

 

[SheHateMe]

I called Verizon and had them cut our programming down to over half of what we had before. We just weren't watching the movie channels at all. So, right now we have basic cable and I have my science and history channels for when I'm just vegging out on the couch and need something to watch. We have a 75/35 connection for internet


Without alarming the AT censors, movies and tv shows come from a series of tubes that lead into my NAS. I have Plex serving up media to 3 tablets around the house (gonna get more) and 2 TVs.

 

[PliotronX]

Day 1469 free from the cord, happy to report no urges :biggrin:

 

[cbrsurfr]

I tried cutting it but Direct TV's box is just so fast and convenient. I tried a HD Homerun with XBMC and media extenders and just didn't like the amount of work it took to manage it all.

I do refuse to pay extra for additional TV's so the bedroom has a Roku 3 and Antenna and the workout room has a smart TV and cheap leaf antenna.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I need to figure out how to watch Last Week Tonight without cable.

 

[mvbighead]

I just disconnected Directv last week after five years and I am suffering from withdrawal syndrome. I feel disconnected to the world. On the other hand $140 will no long disappear from my bank account.

I'm gonna see how the Roku works out for me but I am really cautious of the 100 GB data cap Cox enforces. I may have to sign up for their top tier which is an extra $50 a month.

Something to consider... if you don't run larger TVs, if might be a wise idea for you to drop the resolution to 720p or less. 1080p runs a LOT of data, while 720p takes considerably less.

Actually, now that I look it up, they appear to call it good, better, best:

We've created three settings:
"Good" - The default setting with good picture quality and lowest data use per hour (about 0.3 GBytes/hour)
"Better" - Better picture quality and medium data use per hour (about 0.7 GBytes/hour)
"Best" - Best picture quality and highest date use per hour (generally about 1.0 GBytes/hour - or up to 2.3 GBytes/hour when streaming HD content)

http://blog.netflix.com/2011/03/netflix-lowers-data-usage-by-23-for.html

It's something you could try out before increasing your Internet package. If you are ok with a lesser setting, you may be able to avoid the extra cost without exceeding your cap.

 

[Markbnj]

I'll report in after a couple of weeks. We just returned all our STBs and DVRs to Comcast today. Cord cut.

 

[vshah]

OTA and internet has everything I want. I just dropped the TV service and went for faster fios.

 

[squarecut1]

Called Comcast after I got a promtion from them in the mail which was for cable tv. But when combined with internet, the price was too high. The guy on the other end seemed like a dick and was not interested in offering anything reasonably priced. So nothing came out of the call and I quickly hung up